Google Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Brilliant employees that are remarkably able to solve complex problems, especially in engineering. Wonderful perks and healthy work / life balance.

Cons – Sales organization is run poorly, as it contains non-sales personnel that are under-compensated. There is a bit of a cult-of-personality at the top levels (i.e. there's only one "Marissa" at Google).

Advice to Senior Management – Google could benefit from avoiding the 'me too' fad, such as chasing after the next social network product. Google's core competencies are very strong (amazing search), and certain new focuses are working well that are of similar utilitarian purpose: Android, Apps (Gmail, Calendar, etc).

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Abililty to have high impact.
Terrific benefits / compensation.
Brilliant co-workers.

Cons – Long work hours. Lots of young people with no outside obligations to compete with.

Advice to Senior Management – The size fits all job descriptions don't work well in all groups.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – Great people, flexible work schedule, and great benefit.

Cons – Company not growing as fast anymore.

Advice to Senior Management – None

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – amazing opportunities to educate yourself and deal with the leading edge issues of our time

Cons – so many ceilings to advancement within google. everyone is relatively young and so there is not a lot of upward mobility.

Advice to Senior Management – need better paths upward and more promotions.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – Smart & motivated colleagues, challenging technical problems, working on things millions (and millions) of people use, good culture and company values.

Cons – Gaining weight from the great food (I'm +10 lbs, but working it down). Other than that, not much.

Advice to Senior Management – Being ambitious is good, but learn to say 'no' more often. Google is doing a lot of things -- many great, many well, and some OK. Skip the OK.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Great perks, fun atmosphere, access to unlimited resources

Cons – Hard to get converted to full-time as a contractor.

Advice to Senior Management – More management feedback/mentoring would be helpful

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Great work environment, smart people, unlimited toys and food. Freedom, no nickle-and-dime mentality. Additionally, the word "Google" looks REALLY GOOD on a resume.

Cons – You might get allocated to a position that is below or mismatched with your skills. Since the majority of their software engineers are PhD's, there are many PhD's doing things you don't need a PhD for -- "flipping burgers". Less opportunity for career advancement; managers tend to get hired externally rather than promoted internally.

Advice to Senior Management – Consider people's skills, background, and interests, when allocating them. The free food and toys and general awesomeness of work environment eventually don't outweigh dissatisfaction with actual job tasks.

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – Open environment
Flexible work hours
Good for your career development in the near future

Cons – Same work over and over

Advice to Senior Management – Great but sometimes need to take care junior engineers!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – Salary, diversity, job appreciation, culture, and lifestyle.

Cons – Work life balance, demanding schedule, and hours

Advice to Senior Management – Grow

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Good way to start career and build up resume.
Reasonably good benefits.
Company still not universally hated/distrusted.
If you want, you can literally do nothing for years.

Cons – Grown too fast, became a large company.
More political and inefficient than any place I ever worked at.
If you want to do big things and impact the world, this is not the place.
Many, many, many layers of middle management rejects from Microsoft, IBM, etc.
Founders disengaged (this happens in most successful startups, but it is devastating at Google.

Advice to Senior Management – Have Larry and Sergey re-engage. Look through your organizations, spend some time there. Find out why people are leaving and fix the problems. And finally - Net Neutrality - how could you? I never wanted to use Bing, I am now. Sad.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend